>Readathon: Hour 5

I finished St. Mawr. Lou decided back in England that her new life motto was going to be Noli me tangere, and she’s sticking with it. Traveling in the Southwest, she finds a 60-year-old ramshackle ranch high in the mountains outside of Santa Fe and buys it for $1,200. She vows to her mother that she’ll be happy there, that the land has a spirit that will save her from the cheapness of people and life. It’s a beautiful speech, but Lawrence undercuts it by giving a brief history of all the people in the past 60 years who also loved the the ranch and tried to put the mark of civilization on the place but nature and the elements finally wore them down.

Lawrence must have had mayonnaise on his mind, because he uses it in two expressions during this story: “…rather like an eggshell in the mayonnaise”, meaning to feel or be out-of-place and “For two days, mother and daughter ate in the mayonnaise intimacy of the dining room.” I guess that means that they’re eating with a lot of people, but those people are strangers to them.